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These were the conditions under which a mammoth Boeing B-52 bomber carrying five Air Force crew members and two thermonuclear bombs crashed into a desolate swamp near Big Savage Mountain in Grantsville, just southwest of Cumberland.

(Caption of photographFive of the individuals who still remember the events of January 13, 1964: Gary Yoder, Dean Hillegas, Dan Klotz, Jim Michaels, and Hazel Klotz. There was fear, throughout the area, "that the nuclear substance on board might detonate.")

During the wee hours of January 13, 1964, the enormous plane, en route to Turner Air Force Base in Georgia from Westover Air Force Base in Massachusetts, was being assaulted by brutal; uplift created during an incredibly cold and gusty storm that was dropping two feet of wet, heavy snow onto the heavily timbered, mountainous region below.

Subjected to such incredible turbulence, the plane literally sheared apart. The gunner and navigator ejected. The pilot and copilot also bailed out. The bombardier, Major Robert Townley, did not.

As the massive flying machine tumbled toward earth continuing to disintegrate, wreckage hurtled through the air, scattering over a 25-mile radius into western Maryland, and neighboring Pennsylvania.

These were the conditions under which a mammoth Boeing B-52 bomber carrying five Air Force crew members and two thermonuclear bombs crashed into a desolate swamp near Big Savage Mountain in Grantsville, just southwest of Cumberland.

(Caption of photographFive of the individuals who still remember the events of January 13, 1964: Gary Yoder, Dean Hillegas, Dan Klotz, Jim Michaels, and Hazel Klotz. There was fear, throughout the area, "that the nuclear substance on board might detonate.")

During the wee hours of January 13, 1964, the enormous plane, en route to Turner Air Force Base in Georgia from Westover Air Force Base in Massachusetts, was being assaulted by brutal; uplift created during an incredibly cold and gusty storm that was dropping two feet of wet, heavy snow onto the heavily timbered, mountainous region below.

Subjected to such incredible turbulence, the plane literally sheared apart. The gunner and navigator ejected. The pilot and copilot also bailed out. The bombardier, Major Robert Townley, did not.

As the massive flying machine tumbled toward earth continuing to disintegrate, wreckage hurtled through the air, scattering over a 25-mile radius into western Maryland, and neighboring Pennsylvania.